Hi,

I'm new to this site and new to writing in any kind of forum. I'm also new to dealing with cancer. About 7 weeks ago I noticed a lump on my neck. I thought it was a swollen gland from a cold, but it got a little bigger and wasn't going away. I went in and got it checked. From there, it went a) pretty sure it's a cyst, but lets get an ultrasound to find out for sure, b) ultrasound wasn't conclusive, lets get a CT and see an ENT specialist, c) ENT is 99.9% positive it's a certain type of cyst guys my age get, but thinks we should remove it because these kind of cysts can become malignant over time, d) removed the cyst on 4/27/05 and was told that it was not a cystm but a lymph node and that it was cancerous, e) had CT done from the waist up and nothing was found.

The ENT then told me that we needed to stage this thing and that the recommended procedure was a neck dissection, remove my right side tonnsil, remove my adnoids, and do a biopsy on the base of my tongue. I had this done on May 5th. The result was I'm at Stage III (T2N2bM0). This week I'll learn more about the treatment plan which will consist of chemo and radiation.

Not that I imagine there is a good place to have it, but having cancer in the base of the tongue doesn't seem to be very "lucky". I'm trying hard not to get too far ahead of myself, but frankly, I'm pretty overwhelmed and frightened about the future.

I'm happily married and have 3 boys, ages 13, 11, and 4.